At the Moment (Secret de Suzanne etc)

At the Moment, I'm...

…doing a little show and tell of this awesome vintage perfume bottle that I received as a gift from perfume blogger Meg (aka Olenska) in September. I had no idea a fragrance called Secret de Suzanne ever existed, so this blew me away as the coolest gift ever. But Meg really put the icing on the cake when she included something special for me to put in the bottle: vintage Coty Imprévu dusting powder—the sleekest talcum powder I have ever smelled: a sheer veil of oakmoss is the only way I can think to describe it. It's quiet and oh so chic! The perfect thing to be housed in a bottle with the word "secret" on it!

…wearing D’Orsay L’Intrigante eau de parfum, a generous decant of which was gifted to me by Ines from All I Am - A Redhead after she noticed a comment I left at another blog (Birgit's review of L’Intrigante at Olfactoria's Travels). Do I have you confused yet?

L’Intrigante is a complex fragrance, difficult to describe, but its combination of a slightly tart and fruity rose swirling about in a cloak of musk, patchouli and sandalwood has the effect of making me feel magically reckless. A bit like getting one’s hands on the magical Maurader's Map from Harry Potter. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good" is the vow one makes to open the map and have access to all of the comings-and-goings on at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A similar declaration goes through my head when I wear L'Intrigante and realize how deliciously easy it would be to steer a course towards havoc with a capital H. L’Intrigante is declaratively beautiful and sexy, but without the heavy thump of gravity that usually accompanies such declarations; its sensibility I would define as “spirited.” So much so that one has to be careful when standing at its intersection of beauty and hijinks; at the end of the day, when you are ready to close the Maurader's Map and declare "Mischief Managed" with a happy little smirk on your face, you might want to double-check to be sure those Internet purchases you racked up earlier in the day were on his credit card and not yours. Because things can get a bit dizzy when you’re wearing L’Intrigante, and it would be a grave mistake to think that Ines will come bailing you out when it’s time to ante up for the new boots and the cashmere sweater dress.

…giving a shout out to perfume bloggers Carrie Meredith (Eyeliner on a Cat) and Victoria Jent (EauMG) who were interviewed for a feature article titled “Bottled Seduction” now appearing in the October issue of Allure magazine. They are among elite company in this article—their comments on fragrance interspersed with comments by such fragrance luminaries as Kilian Hennessey, Frédéric Malle, Christopher Brosius and Mandy Aftel, to name just a few. The article is basically about learning how to approach fragrance—how to take the time to discover the fragrances that really sing to you rather than to get lost in the cacophony of fragrant noise coming from the department store and everywhere else. Even though most of you reading here have already taken this article’s advice to heart, go out and grab a copy anyway: It’s a pleasurable read—the kind of article that might be worth snipping out and handing to a friend who is just getting interested in perfume—and it’s exciting to see Carrie and Victoria’s name in it!

…running (I can now run ten miles at a clip—not every day, as ten miles is rather a fatiguing outing for me, but still, I’m rather stoked about that distance!); watching the 2009 film, Pirate Radio, which was a box-office failure but is all kinds of fun (who doesn’t love Philip Seymour Hoffman playing a pirate of the airwaves and flying the flag for Rock-n-Roll on a ship in the high seas?) and, finally, I'm listening to Eliza Doolittle (because the sun has been out for five days in a row now and I'm finally in the mood to whistle and sing a flirty song).

Posted by Suzanne Keller, 10/10/2011.

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